No one who can observe that 1+1 does and always will =2 will be even remotely surprised by the contents of the article but it is good to hear it from a former insider and should leave absolutley no doubt as to the current situation.
I hope this topic will inspire some actual solutions to a tragedy that is on the horizon.

yeah, that was an excellent article. I sent it to a friend who thinks both parties are corrupt, but Dems are worse, somehow. I’ve tried to recommend books to him, but he’s not a big reader. the main point of Lofgren’s piece appears to be that the GOP no longer serves the purposes of a legitimate, serious political party. this leaves the Dems in the position of trying to debate people who don’t even have an ideology to defend anymore.
the modern Republican party seems to be focused on just two aims:
1] to prevent the govt, under a Democratic president, from actually doing anything good, bad, or indifferent.
2] to use highly sophisticated propaganda techniques on our most unsophisticated citizens, to push the message that govt doesn’t work, and should be prevented from working, so that our saviors Jesus and Capitalism, can guide the country to ever-greater glory and profit.
I’ve noticed that some of the best and most in-depth books on this subject were also written by former conservatives or refugees from the party. David Brock’s Blinded By The Right was the first book I read that really got into the inner workings of scorched-earth politics and the effort to destroy Bill Clinton. John W. Dean’s Conservatives Without Conscience examines the authoritarian personality types that have driven the movement since Nixon’s time. and Thomas Frank’s The Wrecking Crew is an eye-opening expose of the day-to-day corruption and willful incompetence that dominated the Bush/Cheney era.
I strongly recommend those books to anyone curious about how the once-respectable Republican party (de)evolved into the radical organization it is today.

Is it just me, or does it smell like there’s a bait-and-switch game going on with the republican primary candidates? For months now these puppets have been trying to out douchbag each other at the debates with the hand-picked audience chorus egging on the show, cheering for electrified border fences and people dying for lack of decent health care. Then Newt chimes in as a slightly less douchy bag and looks almost human by comparison. It’s a con.

Signature

The road of excess leads to the palace of Wisedom
-William Blake, “Proverbs of Hell”

Life, what is it but a dream?
- Lewis Carroll, “A boat Beneath a Sunny Sky